Design elements (images, text, shapes)

In the template editor, you build your design from elements: images, texts, shapes and paths. You add them with the tools in the toolbar and style them in the properties panel.

• Image tool: adds an image, a round image or an icon.
• Shape tool: adds a rectangle or an ellipse.
• Add text: adds a text.
• Add path: draws your own shape, point by point.

The tools for images, shapes and text work the same way: you pick a tool, then click on the canvas or drag a frame there. The new element is selected afterwards, and the tool switches off. Esc cancels a tool you have picked.

Add elements

Image

1. Hover over the icon with the small picture in the toolbar. This is the image tool. A menu with Image and Circle Image opens.
   
2. Choose the shape of your image. The Image Library popup opens, with your uploaded images and the Icons tab.
   • Image: an image in its own shape.
   • Circle Image: an image with fully rounded corners. A square image becomes a circle. You don't need a mask for this.
3. Pick an image in the popup. The popup closes.
   • For your own image:
     • Click one of your uploaded images in the Image Library.
     • Click Upload at the top right for a new image and choose a file.
   • For an icon:
     • Click the Icons tab and choose a color.
     • Type a search term into Search icons if you are looking for a specific icon.
     • Click an icon.
   
   
4. Click on the canvas. The image appears there in its original size. If you drag a frame instead, the image takes the size of the frame.

How the image fills its frame and where it sits inside it is set with Crop Mode and Origin. You change the color of an icon in the properties panel under Color Masking.

Text

1. Click the letters "Aa" in the toolbar. This is the Add text tool.
   
2. Click on the canvas or drag a frame there. A text with the placeholder "Lorem ipsum dolor" appears.
3. Type your text under Content in the Text section of the properties panel. Your text is now in the design.

All properties of a text, such as font, Max Font Size, Wrap and Origin, are explained in Text properties. Text along a curve is covered in Put text on a curve.

Rectangle and ellipse

1. Hover over the square in the toolbar. This is the shape tool. A menu with Rectangle and Ellipse opens.
   
2. Choose Rectangle for a rectangle or Ellipse for a circle or an oval.
3. Drag a frame on the canvas. The shape appears in that size. A single click places a shape of 50 × 50 pixels.

You set the color and outline of the shape in the Appearance section of the properties panel.

Path

A path lets you draw your own shape, for example a line, a wave or a speech bubble.

1. Click the pen nib in the toolbar. This is the Add path tool.
   
2. Click on the canvas. The first point is set.
3. Keep clicking on the canvas. Each click sets a new point and connects it to the last one.
4. Click the first point at the end. The shape is now closed. For an open line, press Esc instead.

How to draw curves and move points later is explained in Draw and edit a path: create your own shapes and lines.

Combine elements

You can combine several elements into a group or a mask. First select them: hold Shift and click the elements one after another on the canvas.

• Group: the elements stay together and move as one. Press Cmd + G (Windows: Ctrl + G). There is no tool for this in the toolbar. More in Group elements: move and arrange them together.
• Mask: one element cuts another to its shape. Select the element that does the cutting first, then the one that shows through. Then click the square with the circle in the toolbar. This is the Mask elements tool. More in Mask elements: crop an image to a shape.